Playlists and Epiphany

Sometimes you have an idea, and you know what you’re going to do when you start writing it. That’s how this piece started, in point of fact. And sometimes you don’t know what you’re going to write, but you have an idea, and you start with that phrase that is so much like a spark that will ignite a flame. That is how my last story “Dancer, which posted last week, started. It started with the first line.

“What is love?” I was going to go into some melodrama about someone or something doing an analysis of love while in a relationship. That’s all well and good, but happened when I wrote the words was that the lyrics of Haddaway’s song, “What is Love?” came to mind and wouldn’t get out of my head. “What is love? Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more.” And like a bolt of inspirational lightning, that first idea was trashed for something new.

Sometimes one has to trash ideas for new ones, give in to what your creative mind wants to do, and follow that path wherever it may lead. Sometimes it’s gold, sometimes it’s trash, but if you’re going to write, you’re going to have to give into the creative monster that sits where most people’s soul resides.

To accompany “Dancer”, I felt the need to make an actual playlist to go with the songs used in the text. It can be found on YouTube here. It isn’t a good playlist for the music itself, but it’s amusing to me, and it is interesting.

David is a co-founder and editor of Babbling of the Irrational and an aspiring writer from NYC. You can interact with David onTwitter and by email at dcastroboti@gmail.com